Li Haotong Surpasses Felipe Aguilar to Win Volvo China Open

Li Haotong beat Felipe Aguilar to claim the title on home soil.(Photo : Getty Images/Lintao Zhang)

Local favorite Li Haotong shot a bogey-free eight-under 64 on Sunday to lift the China Open Cup. The victory is the first European Tour title for 20-year-old Li. With this win, Li became the second Chinese player, after 2015 champion Wu Ashun, to claim a European Tour title on home soil.

The day began with Li trailing behind Felipe Aguilar of Chile and Lucas Bjerregaard of Denmark. However, Li birdied the eighth, 10th and 11th to get even with the lead. The game went through many ups and downs with Li and Aguilar contending neck to neck. However, a double bogey dropped by Aguilar saw him trailing behind by two shots. He cemented his lead with a birdie on the 17th.

Li claimed the victory with Aguilar scoring the runner-up position with a score of 69. The third position was claimed by Denmark's Lucas Bjerregaard, German's Marcel Siem, and England's Richard Bland. Following this win, Li is likely to improve his world ranking by around 100 places. He is currently ranked 237th globally.

Li Haotong finished among the top 10 in seven European Tour events last season. However, he was not able to replicate this performance during the PGA Tour.

"The start of this year has given me a lot of hard times," Li said. "Even though I worked hard I still played badly, especially last week. I worked hard there and couldn't control my ball. I was not even thinking I could make the cut this week."